Matthew’s ALC8 Blog

This was my longest ride ever.  It started with being in Santa Monica at 6am in the morning, in a parking lot next to Helen’s Cycles, and free parking at the Yahoo center.  Breakfast was provided, with cereal, oatmeal, coffee, bagels, bananas, and various other items.  Baggage service was also provided from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara.  I was nervous about this ride, being my longest one ever, but also excited at the same time.

The rideout was at 7:30am.  We took off down Broadway to 7th St, and heading north and then down to Pacific Coast Highway.  I would be along PCH at the coast for quite a while.  My first stop was at the Cross Creek shopping center, for the purpose of a quick bathroom stop.  I then continued on to How’s Supermarket for the first official pitstop, where I had a couple pieces of banana, and had them make me a jelly sandwich (they were doing peanut butter and jelly, but since I can’t eat peanut butter they were nice enough to use a seperate knife and make me a full sandwich with jelly).

After How’s, I continued down PCH through the rest of Malibu and into Port Hueneme.  The winds were nasty, basically spending most of the ride up PCH against the wind, appreciating any little bits of resbit from the winds, going about 6-10 mph.  Finally I made it over to the Point Mugu Naval Base area, where PCH switch from a road to a freeway, where I had a nice stint going 16-20 mph since I didn’t have the wind against me.  After a break at Pit Stop #2, the route then continued down Hueneme Road, once again straight against the wind for about 7 miles.  Fortunately this was the end of the really nasty wind riding, it came up a few more times, but only for much shorter distance, and I was very happy about that.

After a quick stop at a Wendy’s in Port Hueneme at the intersection of Ventura Rd and Huemene Rd, we went south on Ventura Rd.  This is where I missed my first turn.  The route said to turn left at West Channel Islands Rd.  I didn’t have a mileage point for that turn, and completely missed that turn along with 2 others.  The 3 of us continued down Ventura Rd to a point where it doesn’t even exist on the map yet, and I decided to stop and check the map on Google Maps, which is when we realized we were about 6 miles past the last turn.  We then turned around, and went back along Ventura Rd to West Channel Islands Rd, which was actually also a mistake.  If we had realized where we were going, a turn at Gonzales Rd would have put us back on track much faster, with only about 4 extra miles instead of 12 miles, but since we didn’t know the area or exactly where we were going to, we did the full 12 extra miles (on what was already 92 miles).

Finally back on track, we made it to the lunch stop, now 72 miles into our ride (instead of the 60 miles it was supposed to be).  Because of our delay, we made it in after the sweep riders (the training ride leaders who stay with the back of the riders), which they were surprised when they made it in with 3 riders missing…  Fortunately we were making good time on the 12 extra miles, so we weren’t too far behind, but behind nonetheless.  After hearing about going 12 miles out of the way, they offered a ride to compensate for the distance, but the 3 of us opted to do the whole ride.  I then scarfed down lunch (two 6″ subway turkey subs, along with some potato salad and chips).  After finishing lunch, I took off with the earlier of the last 2 groups, and continued down the route.  We followed along the coastal bike path, including meeting up with the train route that the Pacific Surfliner uses.  We continued along the bike path until the separated path/path along streets ends, where we hit Pit Stop #4, at which point I was at mile 85.

At this point we actually enter the freeway.  Since there are no paved pathways along this part of the 101/PCH, the bike path is actually along the freeway.  A group of 5 of us started it at the same time, and we waited for eachother at each exit.  We got off at the next exit, and then immediately back on, continuing to the next exit when we got off the freeway and the path continues along streets once again.  Not long after that exit we hit the final Pit Stop at a Starbucks, now at about mile 92 for me (which was supposed to be the final distance).

After a fairly short stop to hit the bathroom and refill on water, a group of us continued on down the route.  Since I was planning on taking the train up, and needed to be at the train before 7pm, I ended up separating from the group I was with for a bit to get back as quickly as I could.  I also skipped one optional hill called Ortega Hill, and started the final approach into Santa Barbara.  Unfortunately I did make one small mistake (another mile) in Santa Barbara, but then made the final approach to the final meeting point at El Prado Inn in Santa Barbara, at about 6:40p.

When I arrived, we were cheered, and handed a Corona :).  I then checked in, and picked up my bag.  One note that I hadn’t mentioned is that my decision to do this ride was last minute.  Unfortunately I didn’t know about the ride until after the combined ride/hotel reservation options had closed (and booking a hotel separately was considerably more expensive), and my mom mentioned the option of taking the train back.  After checking that out, I decided to do the ride one way and take the train home.  After initially checking if I could get a ride to the train station (I wasn’t particularly interested in riding for another 1.5 miles to the station at that point), I ended up riding to the station.  Fortunately it ended up being basically all downhill, and I think it was a good thing I did it by bicycle, as I was actually going faster that traffic was allowing the cars to go along State St.

I made it into the Amtrak station at about 7pm.  Fortunately the train was running a few minutes late and hadn’t left yet.  After getting into the station, I talked to one of the conductors, and he told me to get on the train and he would sell me a ticket on the train, and it left about a minute after I boarded.  There was another passenger being a bit nasty to the conductor (over something he had no control over), but he took care of me well.  I had to stay with my bike for the first part of the ride, as the rack was full.  On the way to the next station I bought my ticket (a business class ticket for $33), and when we reached the next station he took me over to the next car, and had me put my bike into a compartment that is only used when the train is full, that is on the lower level, and then I headed over to the Business Class car.

I then had a nice trip back to Los Angeles, with some fun pictures, and seeing some of the route that I used to get up to Santa Barbara (that I took some pictures of).  In case you’re curious why I picked business class, it includes a free small bottle of wine (about 1 glass), a snack pack (crackers, cheese, dried fruit, chips and salsa, a mint, amongst other things), coffee (plus continental breakfast in the morning), newspapers, larger seats, AC outlet at every seat, easy to obtain tables for groups in a dedicated business class car (that is between the engine and the cafe car), and when you’re actually there on time, a separate line for boarding.  After a nice relaxing ride down to Union Station, I jumped on the Red Line to Santa Monica/Vermont, and then a bus most of the way home, with a short (really easy) bike ride back home.

This was a great ride, pushing myself further than I ever have before, and making me feel more confident about the actual ride.  Even pushing myself futher than before, with nasty winds, and an extra 14 miles beyond the actual training ride, I still finished and wasn’t completely dead afterwards.  I even did another 8 miles the next day (since I had to pick up the car in Santa Monica, and decided to do it by bike).  I actually was a bit more comfortable doing the bike ride on Sunday than I am just standing up and bending my legs…

To the pictures I took during the ride, click here.  Since I was running late towards the end of the ride, unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures in Santa Barbara, but I did take some pictures on the way up, and on the train ride back.

Route from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara (click for more detail)